Chrome constantly accesses my hard drive even on a static web page

When I use my Chrome browser and leave it open, it is constantly accessing (i think writing) to the hard drive. Even on a static web page. I have read lots of stuff while researching online that indicates this is a problem with some versions of Chrome and Opera. There appears to be no explanation and no solutions (though one person said the problem was reduced by changing his Google profile). I also read that if you have an SSD these excessive writes will wear it out prematurely. Can anyone tell me why this is happening and what is the fix? I really like Chrome and don't want to switch to Firefox or IE but the constant hits to the hard drive slow my system down.